Citizens become better aware that their right to know is now better protected by the provisions of the Public Records Law and the related legislature, which means the open government principles get better enforced. The growing number of successful public records lawsuits stands as the best evidence for the American society progressing along the right path, even if you can’t expect such progress to move smoothly. Lawsuits are being filed at every level, and this fact inspires optimism.
In North Carolina, a building contractor filed a lawsuit against the city of Oak Island for refusing to honor his request to disclose the records pertinent to the building project his company had been in charge of in the connection with the city unilaterally changing the details and requirements set for the project of erecting condo that had been agreed upon and signed still before the construction actually began. In course of the court hearing the city’s officials admitted they had violated public records laws and finally the settlement was finalized by the city agreeing to pay out to the claimant $US 37 000 in attorney fees compensation.
In Columbus, Ohio, a lawsuit was filed last month against the Governor Ted Strickland by the company called by National Building Resources, Inc, for failing to comply with Public Records Act while answering the public records request of the information related to the Governor’s process for requesting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. The company’s attorney Jay Edelson says that up to date he has not received any documents and has not even been provided a timeline on when the Governor plans to respond to the request.
The lawsuit also claims that a slow response from Governor kept thousands of the company’s construction workers from starting working thus wasting much of the construction season’s time. The case is to be heard by the Ohio’s State Supreme Court. By the way, Mr. Edelson is known for winning some high profile class action lawsuits, and his last year’s settlement of nationwide case involving lead paint contamination with Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends Wooden Railway children’s toys that was valued at over $US 30 million got much coverage from media.
Earlier in August in Ohio’s Warren County Common Pleas Court a resident of the village called Waynesville sued his village for what he believes to be a violation of the Ohio Sunshine Law by withholding a public record in a form of DVD recording of the village Council’s meeting that took place last year. At that meeting the council members were discussing the aquisition of the community’s future water infrastructure. The argument was over whether the said DVD did exist or not.
As we can see, the battle for the truly open government is in full swing.
